The latest figures on the labour market from the ONS (17 November 2010) show continued growth in employment and a modest turn down in both the unemployment numbers and the claimant count. But while male unemployment fell, the number of unemployed women increased to reach 1.02 million, the highest figure since 1988.

There is also a gender difference in employment trends. The number of people in employment rose by 167,000 in the three month to September to reach a total of 29,180,000. However, this was mainly driven by self-employment, which increased by 112,000 on the quarter to reach a record high of 4.03 million. Some 91,000 of this growth was men.

The growth in employment was also driven by the continued rise in part-time employment, which increased by 94,000 on the quarter to reach 6.76 million. Of this 63,000 were women and 31,000 were men. Meanwhile full-time jobs occupied by women fell back by 60,000 to 7,011,000.

The total number of unemployed people fell by 9,000 on the quarter to reach 2.45 million. However, male unemployment fell by 40,000 on the quarter to reach 1.43 million, while the number of unemployed women increased by 31,000.

A similar pattern is shown in changes to the claimant count. The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance fell by 3,700 between September and October to reach 1.47 million. However, the number of male claimants fell by 5,400 on the month to reach 1.03 million, while the number of female claimants increased by 1,700 to reach 431,400.

Private versus public split?

It is not entirely clear from the figures what is happening here. The trends are clear but not the detail. A reasonable hypothesis is that job gains in the economy are largely going to men in the private sector (in areas such as construction) while cut backs and redundancies in the public sector are largely affecting women. Certainly a large number of jobs have already been lost in local government services. It may also be the case that the finance sector is rehiring at the higher levels, mainly men, and losing staff from the branch networks, largely women.

Job cuts and pay freezes in the public sector will fall mainly on women as they make up around two-thirds of the workforce. Women make up around three-quarters of the workforce in local government, schools and the NHS.

NB The next IDS Pay Report (No 1062, December 2010) has a fascinating article about the dynamics of the labour market looking at the large-scale flow that regularly take place between employment, unemployment and inactivity. At the aggregate level it might seem that movement is small as with today’s unemployment data, but the flows beneath the surface are extremely high.

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